Republicans have been slamming President Biden’s Covid rescue plan, arguing that it is more focused on advancing a longstanding liberal wishlist than on delivering real pandemic relief. GOP criticisms have mostly centered on the package’s $350 billion in aid to state and local governments, which Republicans decry as a “blue state bailout” that will only encourage more lockdowns, and on the proposed increase in the federal minimum wage to $15, which Republicans blast as a job killer. The GOP has also been pointing out that an estimated $1 trillion of Covid relief funds previously approved has yet to be spent.

But Sahil Kapur of NBC News points out one line of attack that’s been relatively absent from the GOP’s steady drumbeat of criticism:

“A revealing thing about the messaging against the $1.9T Covid bill is how rarely the words ‘debt’ or ‘deficit’ are mentioned.

“It was very effective in the Obama era because Dems conceded the premise. This time the attitude is nah deficits don’t matter. Result: Voters don’t care.”

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